The Principles of Breeding

The Principles of Breeding, by S. L. Goodale

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Title: The Principles of Breeding or, Glimpses at the Physiological Laws involved in the Reproduction and Improvement of Domestic Animals
Author: S. L. Goodale
Release Date: June 22, 2007 [EBook #21900]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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+-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Inconsistent hyphenation and unusual spelling in the | | original document have been preserved. | | | | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For | | a complete list, please see the end of this document. | | | | Note that 'neat cattle' does not refer to cattle that | | dress nicely, nor is it a typo. Neat cattle are | | domesticated straight-backed animals of the bovine | | genus. | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------+
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THE PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING:
OR, GLIMPSES AT THE PHYSIOLOGICAL LAWS INVOLVED IN THE REPRODUCTION AND IMPROVEMENT OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS.
BY S.L. GOODALE, SECRETARY OF THE MAINE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.
BOSTON: CROSBY, NICHOLS, LEE AND COMPANY, 117 WASHINGTON ST. 1861.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, BY STEPHEN L. GOODALE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Maine.

Press of Stevens & Sayward, Augusta, Maine.

PREFACE.
The writer has had frequent occasion to notice the want of some handy book embodying the principles necessary to be understood in order to secure improvement in Domestic Animals.
It has been his aim to supply this want.
In doing so he has availed himself freely of the knowledge supplied by others, the aim being to furnish a useful, rather than an original book.
If it serve in any measure to supply the need, and to awaken greater interest upon a matter of vital importance to the agricultural interests of the country, the writer's purpose will be accomplished.

CONTENTS.
PAGE.
CHAPTER I.
--INTRODUCTORY, 7
II.--LAW OF SIMILARITY, 21
III.--LAW OF VARIATION, 33
IV.--ATAVISM OR ANCESTRAL INFLUENCE, 61
V.--RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE PARENTS, 68
VI.--LAW OF SEX, 89
VII.--IN-AND-IN BREEDING, 94
VIII.--CROSSING, 105
IX.--BREEDING IN THE LINE, 119
X.--CHARACTERISTICS OF BREEDS, 127

THE PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
The object of the husbandman, like that of men engaged in other avocations, is profit; and like other men the farmer may expect success proportionate to the skill, care, judgment and perseverance with which his operations are conducted.
The better policy of farmers generally, is to make stock husbandry in some one or more of its departments a leading aim--that is to say, while they shape their operations according to the circumstances in which they are situated, these should steadily embrace the conversion of a large proportion of the crops grown into animal products,--and this because, by so doing, they may not only secure a present livelihood, but best maintain and increase the fertility of their lands.
The object of the stock grower is to obtain the most valuable returns from his vegetable products. He needs, as Bakewell happily expressed it, "the best machine for converting herbage and other animal food into money."
He will therefore do well to seek such animals as are most perfect of their kind--such as will pay best for the expense of procuring the machinery, for the care and attention bestowed, and for the consumption of raw material. The returns come in various forms. They may or may not be connected with the ultimate value of the animal. In the beef ox and the mutton sheep, they are so connected to a large extent; in the dairy cow and the fine wooled sheep, this is quite a secondary consideration;--in the horse, valued as he is for beauty, speed and draught, it is not thought of at all.
Not only is there a wide range of field for operations, from which the stock grower may select his own path of procedure, but there is a demand that his attention be directed with a definite aim, and towards an end clearly apprehended. The first question to be answered, is, what do we want? and the next, how shall we get it?
What we want, depends wholly upon our situation and surroundings, and each must answer it for himself. In England the problem to be solved by the breeder of neat cattle and sheep is how "to produce an animal or a living machine which with a certain quantity and quality of food, and under certain given circumstances, shall yield